Personal reflections and commentary on wild birds, birding, birders, birdwatching, and other natural history topics of interest

Friday, May 25, 2007

Avian Dissenter

News about birds and their interactions with humans (the good, the bad, and the ugly) can sometimes show up in the most unexpected places, such as Dana Milbank’s “Washington Sketch” column in today’s Washington Post. Here are the pertinent paragraphs:

Is there no safe haven for President Bush?

It happened midway through his news conference in the Rose Garden yesterday morning, in between his 10th and 11th mentions of al-Qaeda: A bird flew over the present and deposited a wet, white dropping on the upper left sleeve of his jacket. Bush wiped the mess off with his bare hand.

A caption beneath a photograph illustrating the story says, “The president encountered dissent from the avian-American community.”

The article fails to say what kind of bird it was that shit on the President, but my guess is that it was probably one of those trashy illegal-aliens of the bird world that litter our city landscapes with their fowl excrement, the Rock Pigeon (Columba livia), European Starling (Sturnus vulgaris), or House Sparrow (Passer domesticus).

Somebody needs to warn the President and his handlers that The Birds is/are about to make a comeback. It would behoove them to be on the lookout for more avian dissenters!

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

A colleagues of mine wrote of today's Washington Post article about the President and the avian weapon of mass destruction, "Give that bird a contract." For those who are not baseball fans, that's an expression used when a fan in the stands catches a foul ball (remember, those balls are traveling fast and hard!). The announcer will say "Give that fan a contract."

To which I replied, "But it was a sparrow, not a Baltimore Oriole (again, for those who are not baseball fans, we have a team called the Baltimore Orioles). But since it was probably not a species protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the Secret Service could kill it without first having to get a permit from the USFWS. Unlike, oh, say, that Killdeer that W. shot some years back."

Call it "The Revenge of the Birds." (for those who are not fans of really bad teen movies, that's an allusion to Revenge of the Nerds).

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About Me

My fascination with birds dates to earliest childhood. Entries in my high school senior yearbook profess my interest in ornithology. Birds and their conservation were the focus of a 33-year career as a professional wildlife biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that took me from the westernmost Aleutian Islands to the political intrigue of Washington, D.C. In retirement, birds remain my constant obsession.